Rep. Davis to Constituents: Make Me Impeach Bush (Dave Lindorff)

Monday, April 9, 2007

Rep. Davis to Constituents: Make Me Impeach Bush

Congressman Danny Davis (D-IL), says that he firmly believes that President George Bush has committed serious impeachable crimes and abuses of power, but says that “at this time” he supports a decision by the House Democratic Caucus to put impeachment aside in the interest of helping to elect a Democratic Congress and a Democratic president in 2008.

Although in late 2005, Rep. Davis was an enthusiastic co-sponsor of a bill by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) that called for an investigation into possible impeachable acts by the president, Davis now says, “The Democratic Caucus has decided that impeachment would not be in the best interests of the country and I’m following that decision.”

At the same time, Rep. Davis, a former Chicago alderman, declares that his basic instinct is to follow the wishes of his constituents. “When I got elected to city council, I set up what I called the 29th Ward People’s Assembly. My pledge then was that on any issue of public policy, I would follow their position. If the group decided on a direction, I had to take it. And that approach has not changed.” Davis insists that if the people of his congressional district were to make it clear, through a letter-writing campaign or a petition campaign or some other means, that they felt impeachment were a priority for them, he would feel bound to act on their views.
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What this suggests is that at least some Democrats in the House, like Davis, might be convinced to honor their oaths of office to uphold and defend the Constitution and impeach the president if there were enough of a groundswell for impeachment among their own constituents. Thus impeachment petition campaigns should shift from a national and a Washington focus to a carefully targeted focus on a few key districts like Davis’s, and others in the old “Gang of 39” that only a year and a half ago was backing Conyers’ impeachment hearings bill.

Most of them likely agree with Davis that the president has committed impeachable crimes, but have, at least for now, bought into the self-serving position of the Democratic Party leadership that winning in ’08 trumps defending the Constitution. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thiscantbehappening.net/